We make photo boxes and light boxes for product photography. Subject photography at home: lighting, equipment. Secrets of product photography Do-it-yourself clean boxing

For shooting at home, a home mini photo studio can be very useful. This wonderful thing will be very useful for any photographers, both beginners and more advanced, for shooting everything possible small items, food when you shoot in macro mode. Having found out the cost of such a photo studio in a store, you are unlikely to want to buy it, but after analyzing the macrobox itself, you can make it yourself.

Necessary materials

Here is a list of materials you will need when creating a macro camera housing:

1) Box. The box can be of absolutely any size, the main thing is to take the one that would be more convenient for you to work with, and also think about the size of the things that you want to photograph in it. You can simply ask for such a cardboard box in one of the grocery stores, or find a box left over from purchased office equipment at home. If you try really hard, you can make it yourself, not from cardboard, but from chipboard, it will be more reliable and will last longer.

2) Textile. It can be any fabric. The example used regular white fabric, which can be purchased at any craft store.
3) Adhesive tape. Adhesive tape, or adhesive tape, is needed if you want to try taking photographs with different backgrounds, so you can always replace the fabric with another one, if your plans do not include all possible experiments with backgrounds, then you can attach the fabric to something more durable, for example, on furniture clips or glue.
4) Glue. Glue will be needed to glue the bottom of the box.
5) Paper. This sheet will be located on back wall boxes in a semicircle and will serve as the main background. The paper should be relatively thick, but not so thick that wrinkles and cracks appear when bent. You can buy several sheets at once, different colors in a regular art store.
6) Lighting. For normal operation your photo studio needs to organize proper lighting for it. Without it, you won't get the image you want. Suitable as a lighting device desk lamp with daylight bulb.
7) Other materials. To work you will need scissors, a ruler and a pencil.

Macro box manufacturing process

Now that you have everything necessary materials, you can start working.
Step 1. Take a box, pencil and ruler. Mark with a pencil the points on the box that will become its boundaries, then draw lines with a ruler. The boundaries are outlined.

Step 2. Cut out the excess, strictly following the outlined lines, so that you get a box with windows. Leave one side untouched - this is the bottom of the box.

Step 3. Take the paper prepared for the background and adjust it to the size of the box, insert it into the inside of the box and secure it. Remember, the length of the paper must be greater than the height of the macrobox.

Step 4. Take the fabric and cut out rectangles from it, such that they could cover the windows in your photo box. Adhere this fabric using duct tape. Your task is to cover three side holes and one top hole with fabric.

Ready!

Well, congratulations, your photobox for product and macro photography is ready. Take photos for your own pleasure.

Process of working with macrobox.

There are many options for how to use a photobox for product photography. If you have unwanted shadows, illuminate with an additional flashlight from the desired side. If you want to achieve a vignetting effect, place the lens as far into the box as possible. You can always come up with something new, play with lighting and backgrounds.

High-quality photography of objects is a very difficult matter. We need special tables, backgrounds, sources diffused light- softboxes.
But there is a device that makes life a lot easier for a photographer. This is a lightcube, aka a photobox, aka a shadowless tent. Of course they are on sale ready-made solutions, but a lightcube is such a thing that it’s much easier to do it yourself.

Structurally, the device is a frame covered with diffusing fabric with a background inside, and illuminated by 1-3 light sources. The simplest lightcube can be put together in literally twenty minutes from a cardboard box and tissue paper, but if you want something more substantial, you will have to work hard. Luckily, various photo blogs have detailed instructions.
Most authors recommend making the frame from PVC cable-duct boxes. Ok, Bartimaeus said to himself and went to the hardware store.

So at first I had:
- a sheet of Whatman paper size A1.
- PVC box 16x16 - 4 pieces, 2 meters each;
- jointing block 15x20mm - 6 pcs. 1.2 meters each;
- spunbond, aka geotextile - 1 pack vka, 1.6 x 10 meters.

I cut 12 pieces of box 35 cm long. In four of them I made a slot on the side, in another four I spread out the “ears”. Looking ahead, I note that this is a very clumsy job. The cable channel is not intended at all for creating structures from it, and it certainly does not forgive such an attitude.

To cut the box, I thought of using garden pruners. :) And for connection - use construction assembly adhesive Lacrysil "Tougher than nails", in the hope of compensating for uneven profiles and cutting flaws. Looking ahead, I note that hopes were only partially justified.

However, pretty soon I became the owner of two 35x35 cm frames. All that was left was to connect them into a cube, with “eared” pieces.

The task turned out to be so difficult that help liquid nails I had to call in the usual...

Nevertheless, here it is, the treasured cube! Oddly enough, the design turned out to be relatively durable. Although unsightly. What can you do, working with a PVC box requires direct hands...

For prevention, I covered the corners with tape. Then I placed the background inside and covered the cube with spunbond. By the way, instead of geotextiles, you can use calico, and, in principle, any white fabric, even an old shirt will do.
Who's whispering "nightie"?? Leave the audience, you prankster! :))

Forgot something? Surely! The most important thing is light!
This is what a lightcube looks like “in combat positions.” For lighting I used two table lamps Ultraflash UF-301. These are the first pictures. As you can see, they look more than decent. Despite the fact that it was not possible to completely get rid of the shadows (the spunbond is still too thin, you need at least two layers), the quality of the photos is an order of magnitude higher than those that I took with the light from the window.

However, when the initial excitement subsided, I wanted... to make version 2.0. Because in the process, annoying design flaws were revealed.
I was already thinking about buying more boxes and connecting it correctly, cutting off all the irregularities and adjusting the parts as accurately as possible, when during another meditation in the construction market I saw THIS.
Remember and don’t say you haven’t heard! Best material for the lightcube frame - this is a “corner” profile made of PVC, white, 20*20 mm, thickness 1.5 mm. Sold in pieces of 2.7 meters, it costs a penny, or at least cheaper than a box. And it is rigid enough to build a cube of at least 60x60x60 cm...

Excellent cutting with a hacksaw for metal...

...and it sticks just as well! Moreover, you can even use Moment glue; you don’t have to spend money on assembly glue. The frames came out in one go. To be on the safe side, I secured the gluing points with clothespins.

My lightcube 2.0 is a parallelepiped 30x35x45 cm. Looking ahead, I’ll note that I missed a bit - the length of the module should have been 42.5-43 centimeters. I will explain why below.

I made one more important addition to the design - I glued it on inner surface top corner LED strip. For front lighting. I found this solution from the Chinese from Aliexpress.

The power of the tape is 14.4 watts/meter, with a piece length of 35 cm (this is 7 LED modules, each 5 cm), the power consumption will be 5.04 watts, with a supply voltage of 12 volts, the current will be 420 milliamps. Which allows you to use a regular block for power supply direct current 12 V with a current of 500-700 mA!

While the glue is drying, you can build the diffusers. By new concept, they must be removable. I made 2 stretchers from a crossbar. 30x35 cm and 1 pc. - 35x45cm. I put PONGS ceiling fabric on the sides, and two layers of spunbond on the top. For fastening I used power buttons with caps, but regular ones will do.

Now someone will ask why it was impossible to build the entire frame from a block, why this foppishness with a corner and overhead diffusers? I answer: this requires not only basic carpentry skills, but also a carpentry workbench or at least a normal workbench with a vice. Sawing a block “on the knee” is a bad idea, and assembling frames from pieces “on the fly” is even worse.

As we see, this time all the efforts paid off. A piece of whatman paper fit inside like a glove, if my photo box was shorter, 43 centimeters, then I could easily use the ready-made A2 format. The ceiling fabric diffuses light well, despite the fact that I installed powerful Gauss 15W light bulbs, 1400 lumens each, into the “tabletops”. For the overhead lighting I used a clothespin lamp"Svetkomplekt" E50N with a 590 lumen lamp, although a regular socket on a tripod will do.As you can see, results have been achieved. The highlights and shadows are gone, the only thing that needs to be worked on is correcting the white balance, but that's another topic.

A visual demonstration of the results of LED strip illumination. The "without backlight" option is on the left. As you can see, the result is very much worth a couple of extra rubles spent on the tape and block.

The frame and diffusers cost about 7 rubles new, and half the amount was paid for glue. I had to pay another 5 rubles for the LED strip, it is sold by the meter. I don’t take into account the power supply, there’s a scattering over them.

Summary. Lightcube is an effective tool for a subject photographer. It’s easy and simple to make it with your own hands, the main thing is to decide on the size and choose the right material for the frame.

P.S. All I have to do is wait until Santa Claus brings me an “adult” camera, and then I can try my hand at photo stocks...
P.P.S. The original article was originally posted on the Otzovik website, but due to administration policy it had to be moved here.

A factory-made shadowless photobox is a necessary thing, but quite expensive. We are far from professional photographers, a homemade lightcube is quite suitable, which can be made from literally anything. Among the most inexpensive and simple options– dense carton boxes, plastic photo frames, ceiling tiles made of polystyrene foam, PVC corners and ordinary Whatman paper.

I decided to make myself a light cube from an ordinary mesh toy basket, once bought on AliExpress at a ridiculous price. Over time, the need for such a “container” disappeared, and I simply didn’t think about what else to use it for, until the idea of ​​making a photo box with my own hands was born. For a folding version, such a basket is an ideal basis. The work, however, is more painstaking, but the product turns out neat, light, and compact. And it takes up practically no space - you can even roll it behind the back of the sofa, or push it onto the “roof” of the closet!

Manufacturing cost and components

The total cost of a homemade lightcube did not exceed $7: the basket cost $1.5, 2 mini-lamps on clothespins cost $3.0, and a pair of 15 W LED bulbs with an initial power of 100 W cost $2.5 . Well, an old calico sheet that you don’t mind cutting can probably be found in any chest of drawers. The only tools that will be useful are thread and a needle, a sewing ripper, a soft measuring tape (“centimeter”), large pins and sharp tailor’s scissors. Now spit on your palms and let's get to work!

Making a photo box

We carefully disassemble our structure - we simply rip out the seams connecting all 4 sides of the basket. Then we remove the mesh and get light metal frames. As you noticed, these frames, after being released from the tissue, unexpectedly accept round shape. A surprise, of course, but quite acceptable - we will work not with ovals, but with rings.

Using a flexible “centimeter” we cover one ring and determine the length of the future binding. In my case, the perimeter was 146 cm, to which I added 4 cm for the edge hem. In total, you should get 4 bindings, one and a half meters long, and make the width a little larger than the standard one - about 3-3.5 cm.

Now we need to cut out the “cores” of these rings - 4 fabric circles that will serve as diffusers. We just measure the diameter of the rings and look for some kind of basin or other thing with suitable dimensions at home. I had such a thing, it turned out to be a boil-off lid with a diameter of 47 cm. I carefully outlined it, and when cutting it out, I added 3 cm (that is, I increased the diameter to 50 cm, so that it would be enough to sew on the binding). Important: do not try to draw a circle on fabric using a compass - you will ruin the material in vain.

When all the parts are ready, we begin to process each of the rings one by one with tape. You grab the folded edges on both sides with pins - there is no point in basting with threads, because we will need to insert the cores into the binding.

This is what we will do now: take out 2-3 pins, insert the edge of the core with a margin of a couple of centimeters and baste “through and through” with white threads. We continue this way in a circle until we have processed all 4 frame rings.

The finished circles turned out very neat, right? Here, for example, is how it turned out for me: I fastened all 4 circles with ordinary stationery clips(binders). For clarity, I turned the structure upside down.

Now we return the box to its “natural position” and prepare it for shooting. We install a lamp opposite the side walls. If you are going to photograph on a table, the lamps can be secured with clothespins along the edge of the tabletop, but since my table is too narrow, I have to do this on the floor. And so that the lamps would not wobble because of the clothespins, I attached to them scraps from plastic window sill– it’s holding up very well, by the way!

The first shot came out so-so because it was “white on white.”

But here it’s better: everything is clearly visible, right down to the inscriptions on the bottles.

The elephant in double packaging (cellophane + organza bag) also turned out to be quite “readable”.
Note: I covered the bottom of my light box with a piece of the same sheet, but in order not to fiddle with ironing this piece every time before shooting, you can replace it with a 50-centimeter strip of whatman paper, and cover the “holes” in the corners of the structure with pieces of fabric from the outside.
And one more moment. For my purposes - photographing handicraft objects and dishes for photo recipes, this light is enough. But if you plan to shoot something small (detailed), then 15 W LED bulbs will not be enough; you will have to buy a couple of more powerful lamps. Good luck with your filming!

Lightcube (light from English “light”) or as it is called lightbox (lightbox), is intended for shadowless subject photography. Widely used in photo studios to create high-quality photographs of objects at close range. This kind of photography is well suited for photographing goods from online stores, photo-video chronology of actions when preparing master classes.

In a lightbox (photobox), objects are well illuminated from all sides, which allows you to achieve good quality photos even when shooting on a budget digital camera or telephone. With this type of photography, it becomes possible to eliminate the presence of a shadow from an object in a photograph or make it almost invisible. In such devices photographs are taken as jewelry, as well as interior items of impressive size, which are then placed in catalogues, booklets and magazines.

In today’s master class on creating a home mini photo studio, I will show you how to make a collapsible lightbox (photobox) with your own hands for shadowless subject photography. You can easily find materials for its manufacture in a hardware store or hardware store, as well as in a fabric store.

For the lightbox we need:

• wooden slats;
• white lining fabric;
• PVA glue and pushpins;
• screws, wing nut (nut with lugs);
• small nails.

Tools you will need:

• drill or screwdriver;
• wood hacksaw;
• pencil, tape measure and square.

We will also need to find or purchase bright lamps white glow and lamps for them.

Let's do the first thing wooden slats. We will need 12 slats, each 50 cm long. Next, we apply markings to our tongue-and-groove slats, as shown in the figure (stepping back 1 cm from the edge and marking our segment into 3 equal squares). We apply the same markings to both ends of each rail. To make a tongue-and-groove connection on 4 slats, mark the middle square with a cross, and on the remaining 4 slats, mark the outer squares with a cross. We do not touch the last 4 slats; they will be needed later to connect our lightbox.

Using a hacksaw, cut out the squares marked with a cross. We connect the finished blanks together at right angles into a frame. If necessary, we customize each connection individually. Thus, we get two square frames.

Now we cut out 8 triangles from the timber to strengthen the connections of our slats. Using PVA glue we glue our triangles, additionally securing each with two nails. Our frames are almost ready.

If the tongue-and-groove connection is not adjusted correctly, gaps may appear that can be filled by mixing sawdust and PVA glue.

We mark and drill two holes for each rail, and don’t forget to make holes on the frames. All that remains is to clean the frames using sandpaper and cover with white paint. We leave our framework until completely dry paint and let's do the lining fabric.

Let's prepare two canvases measuring 50x50 cm, they will be needed for attaching to frames, and one long canvas 150x50 cm. First, let's put the sections of the long fabric in order. Fold the edges twice and iron them. Let's sew it on a machine. If necessary, we will iron our fabrics.

The paint has completely dried and you can continue working with the frames.

We will attach two pieces of fabric 50x50 cm to the frames. To do this, we will use push pins. We stretch the fabric and fasten it to the frame with buttons. I decided not to fix the long canvas on the removable elements of the cube.

Let's assemble our cube. We insert screws into the holes of the frames and use wing nuts to connect the four slats.

All that remains is to find lighting. We insert powerful lamps into the lamps and place them on all sides of the cube, thereby illuminating the cube. I only had one good lamp and a table lamp, this was enough to take good pictures without using a flash.

The subject for photography was my collection of my favorite Volkswagen Transporter T1 cars.

For the background, you can use fabric of any color, but keep in mind that it should transmit light in the same way as the lining fabric.

About the author:

Greetings, dear readers! My name is Max. I am convinced that almost everything can be done at home with your own hands, I am sure that everyone can do it! IN free time I love making things and creating something new for myself and my loved ones. You will learn about this and much more in my articles!

You do handicrafts and need high quality photos graphics of your products? Or are you just interested in subject photography, but for now at an amateur level and everyone necessary tools no for this? Be that as it may, yours faithful assistant will become lightbox made.

In contact with

This item has many names - “photobox”, “photocube”, “light box”. Call it what you want, but having made a lightbox with your own hands, you will understand that this is an impromptu mini-studio with which you can get high-quality photos at home. Lightbox is a cube, on five sides of which white or loose fabric is stretched. They diffuse light and eliminate harsh shadows, which allows the viewer to focus their attention directly on the subject of photography.

What to make a light box from?

To make a light box you will need the following materials:

DIY photobox. Master classes

Lightbox out of the box

The size of the box will depend on what you are going to shoot. If these are miniature products, for example, jewelry, then you don’t need a large box. She will simply take extra space. But if you are shooting various products for an online store, then it is better to use a larger base.

Photobox made of plastic pipes

Another way to make a photo box with your own hands is this is the use plastic pipes . This method is more complex and will require certain skills and tools, but this box looks much more aesthetically pleasing.

Foam light box

The simplest and most practical light box You can make it yourself from sheets of foam plastic, such as those used for finishing ceilings. You will need four sheets in total.

1. Using tape, glue three sheets of foam together with the letter P. That is, you should get the back and side walls.
2. Place another sheet on top, but attach it only to one of the sides so that it looks like a lid, and the top sheet opens and closes.
3. Open the top side and attach the paper to the back wall. You can simply bend the sheet a little and it will already adhere to the frame. The paper should be of such a size that it also covers the bottom of the photo box. Close the top to keep the light out.
4. Install the lamps.

The practicality of such a light box is that if the paper is dirty, you want to change the background color or make it textured, then just open the top wall and attach another sheet. You can hang it in the same way various decor, which will complement the composition.

Using this master class you can do more cheap option lightbox from thick paper, such as watercolor, cardboard or wooden boards.

Ready-made lightboxes cost several hundred dollars, but by spending a minimum of money and effort, you can make a small photo studio at home with your own hands. The most expensive of all materials will be good light bulbs with bright white light. For high-quality photographs, you shouldn’t skimp on light.

With photobox you no longer have to wait for good sunny weather and remove only when daylight. And the time for processing photos will be significantly reduced. There is no need to adjust white balance, contrast, remove sharp shadows or, as happens in some cases, completely change the background, which requires special skills when working in graphic editors. Another advantage is that the quality of the photo will not be affected by surrounding objects, which can sometimes greatly distort the colors of the photographed object.

If you use a light box and know how to properly compose, then even pictures taken on mobile phone, will differ little from studio photos. So not worth spending a lot of money on something that you can easily do with your own hands using detailed master classes.